1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to fatigue damage due to accumulated loading, and more particularly to systems and methods for aircraft fatigue monitoring.
2. Description of Related Art
Structures such as air vehicles, and particularly rotorcraft structures, are susceptible to accumulated fatigue damage and subsequent fatigue cracking from repetitive loading cycles over the course of the vehicle's service life. Traditional methods to protect against fatigue cracking include assigning a component retirement time or inspection interval based on aircraft utilization rates, for example, using flight hours and/or total take-off and landing cycles. This method requires conservative assumptions about how the aircraft is used in order to ensure a sufficiently low likelihood, e.g. risk, of failure due to fatigue cracking. Due to these conservative assumptions, the frequency of component retirement or inspection in many cases ends up being more than necessary for a given aircraft in view of the actual fatigue damage, usage or loading history of the vehicle.
Such conventional methods and systems have generally been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose. However, there is still a need in the art for improved methods and systems for aircraft fatigue monitoring. The present disclosure provides a solution for this need.